Six weeks without NASCAR’s most popular driver on the track.
It was announced late last week that Chase Elliott would miss this past weekend’s Cup Series race at Las Vegas after breaking his leg in a snowboarding accident in Colorado earlier this week.
Elliott underwent successful surgery on Friday for the broken left tibia, and was replaced by Xfinity Series driver Josh Berry in the #9 Chevy for Hendrick Motorsports at Vegas.
And now we know a little more about the timeline for Elliott’s return.
According to Hendrick Motorsports, they expect Elliott’s recovery to last approximately six weeks, which means that he will likely at least miss upcoming races at Phoenix, Atlanta, the Circuit of the Americas road course in Austin, Richmond, and the dirt race at Bristol Motor Speedway – if not more.
Josh Berry, who finished 29th last week in his Cup Series debut, will continue to drive the #9 Chevy at the oval tracks in Elliott’s absence.
For the road course race at COTA, IMSA driver Jordan Taylor will be behind the wheel. It will be Taylor’s first Cup Series start, though he has two IMSA wins at the track for Corvette Racing.
While this is the first we’ve heard of a timeline for Chase’s return, Rick Hendrick emphasized that their driver won’t be rushed to return before he’s healed:
“We’re focused on getting Chase back to 100%, so we’ll take however much time is necessary and make sure he has the best resources available.”
Looking at the two races that are six weeks after Chase’s injury, the earliest he could return would be Martinsville Speedway – a track where drivers do a significant amount of braking, something that could be hard on a recently-healed injury to your braking leg.
And next up would be Talladega, where the risk of a big crash and re-injury are significant, and may not be one that the driver and team are willing to take.
So is it possible that Elliott’s out for at least the next two months? Absolutely.
The team has already applied for a waiver to allow Chase to compete for the championship when he returns, though he’ll have to manage to get a win and finish the season in the top 30 in points – something that becomes harder the more races a driver misses.
Regardless though, the most important thing is that Elliott is able to recover and fully heal from the injury.
And now we have a better idea of at least how long that will take.
Kyle Busch Says He Reached Out To Chase Elliott After He Broke His Leg Snowboarding
One star NASCAR driver has already reached out to Chase Elliott about his accident: Two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Busch.
Busch is no stranger to injury himself, as he’s broken his tibia and fibula in the past, so he knows what it’s like to have to miss a significant amount of time due to injury.
He discussed the situation in a press conference this past weekend, where he discussed the significance of the injury:
“It depends on what and where the break was obviously. It’s mid-leg break and you get a rod and screws, it’s not too terrible, it’s not that bad. But if it’s something more, you know knee or ankle located, then obviously that’s gonna be a bigger issue of a joint that needs to move and bend.
That’s the big piece of what’s unknown at this time from my knowledge anyway. But if it’s just a regular leg break, you know like I had, then you know it’s gonna be at least four weeks I would think, just based off of getting a rod and screws and then your bones are starting to fuse and getting a little bit of fusion going, that’s about the length that it takes in order to get something going, so I’m sure he’s in good hands.”
He also admitted that he reached out to Elliott once the news dropped:
“I reached out to him last night and this morning to kind of just talk to him a little bit about my experience in it, and would be happy to help and talk to him and help him through all the things that I did that helped my speedy recovery.
I just told him when he gets all settled give me a call, it’s a memoir. I’m not gonna type it.”
